A concert tour (or simply tour ) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often, concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific tour with a particular album or product. Especially in the popular music world, such tours can become large-scale enterprises that last for several months or even years, are seen by hundreds of thousands or millions of people, and bring in millions of dollars in ticket revenues. A performer who embarks on a concert tour is called a touring artist .
19-459: The Farewell Tour was a concert tour performed by the American rock band Kiss . It started on March 11, 2000 and concluded on April 13, 2001. It was the last tour to feature original member Ace Frehley . It was intended to be Kiss' last tour, however, in late 2002 they announced that they were not going to retire as planned. Although Kiss continued performing after the conclusion of the tour, this
38-621: A CD/DVD combo with unreleased songs, demos and footage from that era. However, this was delayed until 2013's deluxe and super-deluxe editions. Christine McVie did not participate, having retired from the group in 1998. Stevie Nicks mooted Sheryl Crow joining the band to add a female to the group dynamic in McVie's absence. Of the onstage atmosphere, Nicks remarked: "My cousin John has known Lindsey [Buckingham] and I since 1968. He told me, 'When I saw you and Lindsey play with Fleetwood Mac in 2009, there
57-776: A new form of theatrical entertainment, a fusion of song, performance art, innovative stage craft, and state-of-the-art technology. She managed to popularize the Las Vegas residency as a desirable way for top artists to essentially tour in place, letting their fans come to them. American singer Lady Gaga , who cancelled the 2018 European leg of her Joanne World Tour , signed for a Las Vegas residency to help manage her fibromyalgia illness, which can be exacerbated by touring. The 2015 study by charity Help Musicians found that over 60% of musicians suffered from depression or other psychological issues, with touring an issue for 71% of respondents. Unleashed (concert tour) The Unleashed Tour
76-453: A tour are denoted in different ways, dependent on the artist and type of tour, but the most common means of separating legs are dates (especially if there is a long break at some point), countries and/or continents, or different opening acts. In the largest concert tours, it has become more common for different legs to employ separate touring production crews and equipment, local to each geographical region. Concert tours are often administered on
95-477: Is Taylor Swift 's Eras Tour , with $ 2.089 billion earned from 125 shows. In 2024, Coldplay 's Music of the Spheres World Tour became the second tour to gross $ 1 billion in revenue. In third place is Elton John 's Farewell Yellow Brick Road , with a total gross of $ 939 million from 2018–2023. On fourth place is Ed Sheeran 's ÷ Tour , with a gross of $ 776.2 million. On fifth place
114-400: Is U2 's 360° Tour , with $ 736.4 million. Global touring revenue reported to Billboard Boxscore exceeded $ 5.5 billion in 2016. Due to the collapse of record sales in the 21st century, concert tours have become a major source of income for recording artists. Besides the tickets, touring also generates money from the sales of merchandise and meet-and-greet packages. However,
133-443: Is a concert tour intended to signal the retirement of a singer, the disbanding of a band, or the end of a show's run. Many of the tours end up not being the last tour, with frequent regroupings, or revivals of shows. Luciano Pavarotti 's 2004 tour and Kenny Rogers 's 2015–2017 tour are examples of farewell tours which were the last to be staged before their deaths. As of October 2024, the highest-grossing concert tour of all time
152-439: Is a peculiar thing, it doesn't suit me particularly well. I'm a real homebody and I get so much joy in the small things." A concert residency concept is offered as an alternative to performers who just need to stay in one venue and the fans come to see them. The concept has been revitalized in the 21st century by Canadian superstar Céline Dion with the success of her A New Day... residency (2003–2007). Her residency introduced
171-437: Is a retrospective of her career to that point, where each act of the concert represents one of her albums . In another case, artists embark on a concert tour to celebrate the anniversary of their past albums, such as U2 's 2017 tour to mark the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree (1987) and Janet Jackson 's 2019 tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). A farewell tour
190-518: The Psycho Circus tour and after that we thought, "been there, done it." We're the champs again, let's retire on top and we felt there is nothing worse than having someone go away and you don't get to say goodbye so this tour really is for the fans and to celebrate the whole history of the band. Encore Encore Additional musician Concert tour Different segments of longer concert tours are known as "legs". The different legs of
209-641: The Tusk album. They also resurrected the Peter Green track ' Oh Well ' for the first time live since 1995. The tour ranked number 13 in the Worldwide Concert Tours data that is maintained by Pollstar and grossed a total of $ 84.9 million with a total attendance of 832,597. This was the first tour that the Rumours -era lineup undertook without a new album to promote. The group were planning to rerelease Rumours as
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#1732869694458228-550: The band, resulting in Criss destroying his drum set out of frustration at the end of the show. He was replaced by Eric Singer for the Japan and Australian legs. Frehley left the band following the farewell tour, intending to focus on his solo career. In the tour program for the band's final tour , Stanley reflected on the tour: The Reunion tour made us the number one band again. We played to about two million people in one year. Then we did
247-434: The local level by concert promoters or by performing arts presenters . Usually, small concert tours are managed by a road manager whereas large concert tours are managed by a tour manager . The main challenge in concert tours is how to move the performance's logistics from one venue to another venue, especially for a transcontinental tour. Tour logistics should be very organized and everything has to happen on time and in
266-467: The right order as planned. Autoweek magazine estimated 30 to 50 trucks were required by Taylor Swift 's The 1989 World Tour to bring all the stage, sound equipment, instruments, props, and clothes. When Beyoncé visited the United Kingdom with her 2016 The Formation World Tour , it took seven Boeing 747 air freighters and a fleet of more than 70 trucks to get her stage set and other gear to
285-653: The show in Irvine, California, Frehley had missed his flight and ended up having to fly via helicopter to the show, where the band's then-tour manager Tommy Thayer was dressed in his makeup, ready to fill in for him. Peter Criss had effectively left the band following the final show in North Charleston , in October 2000; however, this was not publicly known at the time. His reunion contract had essentially expired and he and Kiss were unable to come to terms for him continuing with
304-494: The touring business suffered in the early 2020s because of the COVID-19 pandemic . Pollstar estimated the total lost revenue for the industry in 2020 at more than $ 30 billion. The mobility of concert tours requires a lot of costs, time, and energy. It is very common for musicians to not see family members for over a year during their touring. British singer Adele expressed her unhappiness of concert tours, saying "Touring
323-577: The venues. The logistics phase of that tour did not include transportation of the backstage staff, musicians, performers, and the singer herself. The majority of concert tours are part of a promotional campaign to support an album release. Hence, new songs from the respective album are included on its tour's setlist . Some tours are known as "greatest hits tours" or "reunion tour" without any new material or specific album release, such as Fleetwood Mac 's 2009 Unleashed tour and No Doubt 's 2009 Summer Tour . Taylor Swift 's The Eras Tour (2023–2024)
342-540: Was a concert tour by the rock band Fleetwood Mac . The tour ran from March 1, to December 20, 2009 in the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and was the band's first tour in five years, the group featured tracks within the setlist that spanned "all the Mac's many greatest hits" and pulled two rarely played live tracks " Storms " and " I Know I'm Not Wrong " that were taken from
361-563: Was the final tour with the original, reunited lineup. Paul Stanley later revealed the tour was an attempt to "put Kiss out of its misery" following the legal troubles during production of Psycho Circus , and the reunited band having underwhelming live performances and "being virtually prisoners to doing the same songs every tour." The tour began on March 11, 2000 in Phoenix, Arizona at the Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion. During
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